Five things a household buys, each priced in years of the typical household's income, in 1970 and now, with the quality and aid adjustments set beside them.
A price in dollars mostly measures the dollar. This primer measures each price against one ruler: the median household's income in the same year. A figure of "2 years of income" means the typical household would spend two full years of income to buy it.
All four values come from one maintained Census table (H-5). Census revised 2024 when it adopted new population controls in September 2026, so this page uses the revised $83,160.
Each good is priced at both ends of the period, converted to years of income, and compared. Each price is divided by income from the same year: health spending for 2024 by 2024 income, 2023-24 tuition by 2023 income, 2025 prices by 2025 income.
Four of the five goods take more years of income than they did around 1970. Food takes less. The next section shows what the raw prices leave out.
Raw prices don't adjust for what the good became, or for aid. These figures sit beside the raw ones; some point the other way.
Four measures of whether young adults are forming households. They don't move in the same direction, and this page doesn't reconcile them.
The share of 25-to-34-year-olds living with a parent roughly doubled, and new housing starts per existing household fell by more than half. The aggregate headship rate rose, and under-35 homeownership is about where it was in 1994.
This section is interpretation, stamped Cond. The figures above stand without it.
| Series | Break | Year | What it does to the comparison |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adults 25-34 living with a parent | 1970 comes from the decennial census; recent years come from the CPS, which counts unmarried college students in dorms as living at home. | 1970 / CPS years | Part of the rise reflects longer schooling and a different survey, not housing cost alone. |
| House price per square foot | The Census series starts in 1992 and excludes the lot. | 1992 | It can't sit on the 1970 axis, and it misses rising land values that the sale price includes. |
| Under-35 homeownership | The Census HVS age series starts in 1994. | 1994 | No 1970 baseline; shown only on its own range. |
| Food at home | 1970 comes from ERS's archived series; 2025 from the current series, which starts in 1997. They differ where they overlap (6.30% vs 6.06% in 1997). | 1997 | The 2.07x figure crosses two vintages. The current series runs slightly lower, so the true change may be slightly smaller. |
| Car price | 1970 is BEA's average for new cars only; 2025 is KBB's December average for all light vehicles, pickups and SUVs included. | 2001 (BEA series ends) | Part of the raw increase is a shift to larger vehicle types. |
| Headship rate | Not age-adjusted. | all years | An older population forms more, smaller households, so part of the rise reflects aging. |
| Median household income | Census revised 2024 from $83,730 to $83,160 with Vintage 2025 population controls. | 2024 | Every income-ruler figure that uses 2024 changed slightly; earlier publications show the old value. |
| Household counts (HH-1, HH-6) | The 2025 rows carry Census footnote "t": new population controls. | 2025 | 2025 counts are not strictly comparable with earlier years; the starts-per-household ratio inherits this. |